About Us
Providing opportunities for those we support, our colleagues and our communities to fulfil their potential
Celebrating 35 years
SHC celebrated its 35-year anniversary in 2020 and is the largest provider of residential services in Sussex.
With nearly 600 employees, SHC provides specialist care for individuals with a range of personalised care packages, promoting person-centred care and support. With a head office near Horsham, West Sussex, the company also has an onsite training academy to support its staff by providing more than 9,500 courses a year.
More than just a home
Good health is much more than just the absence of illness. We recognise that leisure, social and recreational activities are essential to a person’s overall good health and sense of well-being. Good health is also enhanced by a sense of community, not just in our homes, but around them as well.
Every home provides a full programme of activities to stimulate, motivate and interest the individual, encouraging them to use their capabilities to the fullest extent. Activities are selected by individuals, based on their previous interests as well as their current abilities. Participation and initiative are encouraged, old skills and interests are recalled and new ones are learned.
SHC offers a range of individualised care packages promoting personalised care and support. Additional services include respite care, sensory rooms, hydrotherapy pools and spas, activities, transport, physiotherapy and several holistic therapies.
Our vision
Our vision is of a society where each person, regardless of age or ability, is given the opportunity to live their life, their way.
Our mission
To deliver best practice by listening, acting and operating in an effective, innovative and evolving way, providing opportunities for those we support, our colleagues and our communities to fulfil their potential.
Our history
Through the years
The organisation was founded on the principle of providing the very best in care and support, and that remains the case today. Established in 1985, with the acquisition of Clemsfold House, a home providing residential care for older people, SHC has expanded and developed its service provision, adding a further 7 homes between 1985 and 1995, and then focussing on building purpose-built facilities of exceptional and unrivalled standards.
Present day
Today, we are one of the largest providers of residential and nursing care in Sussex, offering specialist care for individuals and a range of care packages that promote personalised care and support for people with complex learning disabilities, acquired brain injury, those with autism and older people with long term conditions such as dementia. We employ nearly 600 people who live locally or in our purpose-built staff accommodation.
Very friendly staff, always polite and ready to help you. The staff are all committed and dedicated to their jobs and role. They all seem to work well in a team or independently. The staff will always contact you if there is a problem and very good at accompanying my mother-in-law to various medical appointments outside the home. Will recommend this particular to friends and family. The manager has been superb at communicating with us with weekly emails and updates regarding Covid-19.
Relative of resident at Longfield Manor, May 2020Your life, your way
My mother has Alzheimer's and vascular dementia and has been at Longfield Manor for 15 months. The CQC report I have seen does not accurately represent the care home I have come to know over this time. The hard work, commitment and cheerfulness of the manager and staff create a warm, caring, competent
Daughter of resident at Longfield Manor, May 2020
atmosphere. My mother can be demanding and it is lovely to see how tolerant and loving the staff are with her. I have confidence that she is in a good place where she is being well treated and looked after even through this awful pandemic.Your life, your way
Our sister was the first resident to move into Woodhurst! Her needs and levels of care have obviously increased over the years. The necessary equipment, staffing and safety measures have been put in place as required. The Manager is always approachable. She has used initiative and empathy into making life comfortable for my sister. Patient and caring staff and thanks to the Chefs for providing healthy delicious vegetarian meals. The Woodhurst team always give the warmest welcome to family and friends. They are ready to answer any questions and encourage suggestions.
Sister of resident at Woodhurst Lodge, February 2020Your life, your way
Memberships
Our vision is a society where everyone can enjoy the same rights and opportunities.
Professor Gerry Simon set up BILD in 1971 because he was convinced there could be better support in the community for people with disabilities. We have been championing the human rights of people with disabilities ever since.
We work to develop the skills and culture necessary to understand people’s needs and improve their quality of life. Our approach applies a rigorous evidence base, broad expertise and long-standing experience to find and enable both short and long-term solutions that bring about
National Care Association remains the most established, respected and largest of the trade bodies due to our strong ethos of putting members at the heart of all that we do
NCA is a supportive hub for care providers with access to recruit safely (using our DBS service), support and advice from experts, up to date personalised toolkits, information on key developments nationally and locally through national and local conferences and seminars. Additionally, there is access to discounts on products and services and much more…
Being part of NCA brings peace of mind when needed the most: our members know that we will help, advice and support them through thick and thin.
Care England, a registered charity, is the leading representative body for independent care services in England.
Working on behalf of small, medium and large providers, Care England speaks with a single unified voice for both members and the whole care sector. Our membership includes organisations of varying types and sizes, amongst them single care homes, small local groups, national providers and not-for-profit voluntary organisations and associations. Between them they provide a variety of services for older people and those with long term conditions, learning disabilities or mental health problems.
Care England is committed to supporting a united, quality conscious, independent sector that offers real choice and value for money. Our aim is to create an environment in which care providers can continue to deliver and develop the high quality care that communities require and deserve.
Our aim at NAPA is to ensure that every care and support setting is full of life, love and laughter.
We value the uniqueness of every person and their right to a meaningful conversation every day, the right to person-centred meaningful engagement with choice and control over how they spend their time, and activity provision which is respectful, creative, innovative and fun supported by skilled staff.
We will aspire to meet our aims through being an effective training, assessment and qualification awarding body, having robust finances enabling us to maintain our services and develop new ones, building partnerships with like-minded organisations, and setting the standard in training and leadership for activity provision.
Careers and training
An enthusiastic and motivated workforce is crucial to delivering the standards we set ourselves. In addition, external factors such as new legislation and clinical advances, as well as rising aspirations, present constant new challenges.
This is why SHC places such emphasis, effort and financial support on the training and career progression of staff. Through supervision and appraisal, the training needs of staff members are met, and the employee is given the support to progress within the company. As well as offering fantastic training and career progression, SHC also provides subsidised meals, increased Holiday allowance with length of service, subsidised staff accommodation, free uniforms, and a free staff bus service.
Don’t just take our word for it, find out from our SHC employees:
Danielle Garside, HR Administrator:
“I joined SHC in 2018 as a Business Administration Apprentice, working in the Learning and Development Team. Upon completion of my apprenticeship, I was given the amazing opportunity to join the HR department as an HR Administrator. I’m really enjoying the new challenges this role offers and I’m very excited to progress further in this field.”
The training programme takes place within the framework of an annually revised plan that ensures the organisation is able to meet the challenges of a fast-changing sector to grow and develop in a new direction of care.
With the support of SHC’s Boldings Brook Training Academy, our teams work closely with consultants and specialist teams such as the National Hospital for Neurology in Queens Square, The Royal Hospital for Neurological Disorders and Guys and St Thomas hospitals. These close links enable staff teams to provide a unique understanding to the people we support with neurological conditions or acquired brain injury.
Want to work at SHC? Visit our careers page today.The staff look after my son very well and I have no concerns with the care home. I visit regularly and am very happy with the support he receives. Thank you, Woodhurst Lodge.
Mother of resident at Woodhurst Lodge, February 2020Your life, your way
I would like to leave this review for Upper Mead as I feel that the care my husband is getting is truly amazing. The care staff are all my heroes during this pandemic and it is so reassuring to feel that my husband is safe and well looked after in these difficult times. No words can ever be enough to thank everyone for the care they have given to my husband and for giving me peace of mind.
Wife of resident at Upper Mead, May 2020Your life, your way
My mother has Alzheimer's and vascular dementia and has been at Longfield Manor for 15 months. The CQC report I have seen does not accurately represent the care home I have come to know over this time. The hard work, commitment and cheerfulness of the manager and staff create a warm, caring, competent
Daughter of resident at Longfield Manor, May 2020
atmosphere. My mother can be demanding and it is lovely to see how tolerant and loving the staff are with her. I have confidence that she is in a good place where she is being well treated and looked after even through this awful pandemic.Your life, your way